Cotswold Private School to Close After 106 Years Amid Labour Tax Raid
25th January 2026
A 106-year-old Cotswolds private school is to close amid Labour’s VAT raid.
Rendcomb College, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, announced that it would shut this summer because of “the economic situation facing independent schools across the country”, as well as its current and projected pupil numbers.
It said the school would not be “financially viable in the future”, meaning 380 children will be forced to move elsewhere.
David Tyler, the former chairman of Sainsbury’s, attended Rendcomb College in the 1960s.
Saqib Bhatti, shadow education minister, told The Telegraph: “Labour’s schools tax is an ideological attack on aspiration and on people who work hard to be able to invest in their children’s education.
“Every time a school is forced to close thanks to this tax, it means more children’s lives are disrupted and more pressure on the state sector.”
This is why we can’t have nice things.